Here’s How You Can Run iOS 5 Beta On Your iPhone Without A Dev Account [How-To]

Want to test out iOS 5 but don’t have a developer account? No worries: a new vulnerability makes it pretty trivial to upgrade to iOS 5 on any iPhone.

Be careful, though… rolling back to iOS 4 if things go south isn’t officially supported. This is for pros only, and there’s a lot that can go wrong.

Here’s how you can upgrade any iOS device to iOS 5 without a developer account, courtesy of Gizmodo. We haven’t tried it ourselves (yet) so we can’t vouch for the method, but they’ve gotten it to work… just be extra careful before you do this.

7) You’re now in Notification Center. Click on the Weather app, then click on the home button to exit to the iPhone’s spring board.

8) Congrats! Your iOS device should be fully operational.

We don’t endorse this method of playing around with the iOS 5 beta: there’s a lot of things that can go wrong, and given the amount of bugs and issues in iOS 5 beta, and the fact that it is not trivial to downgrade back to iOS 4.3.3 if something goes wrong, we recommend only the brave try this method.

If you do manage to get it to work for you, though, we’d love to hear about it in the comments.

So if i put this on my 3GS, how easy will it be downgrade back? Will i have to install all my apps again when i do? How buggy is iOS 5, is it even usable for end users?

SapirKraus

Ok…. thinking about sacrificing my iPhone anyway… has anyone tried it out and it worked well for him?(on a GSM iPhone 4)

Support 18inc

And now for the iPad iOS 5 hack, oui?

Hello

Ok, I have tried it on my iPad, and it works half. You can get the notification window! Without widgets! So you dan’t get in the weather app or stocks.

Now restoring.

Fabienlaine

No way to get it on the Ipad 2 I tried three times!!

Jakob Staune Bakmann

hahahahahahah… this works :D but you cant use it for good, cause there is no signal to your mobile carrier :/

mrwwt

Tried it on my iphone 4 (o2 uk) – it does work – however, it only by-passes activation on the phone, but not on itunes – so you can’t restore from a backup or anything – rendering it pretty much pointless … you can check out the new features then get in to DFU mode and go back to normal though

robpickering

Rollback works. Just FYI.

J_Tremain

Yeah you’re not able to sync via iTunes after updating because the phone checks for iTunes 10.5 and the beta iTunes out now is 10.3. I was able to get my mail, contacts, etc to sync because I’m using MobileMe still. Not sure how to get music back on the phone though, if there is a way. Apps and iTunes purchased music can be restored using the App Store and iTunes app on the phone.

nazimjamil

You have to hold alt [if you’re on a mac] and click ‘Restore’ and then restore the iOS5 ispw file. But I seem to have NO signal. So you shouldn’t install it.

Sam T.

I finally got it to work, I had to hold option and click restore to install the beta, clicking the update button kept giving me an 3002 error. But it works!

Na

This is not good, so I updated my phone and my itunes, now no carrier, apple knows I’m not a delvoleper , so I’m now stuck with a phone with now service… how on earth do I restore everything back?

Mike Rathjen

typo

“for your iPhone n the web”

Na

How do we go back to normal?

Michael Steeber

It tells me my device is not eligible for the update.

Tyler T

same thing… i dfu restored to 4.3.3… somehow it restored carrier

Sam Shapiro

Works great except for messages!ipod touch 3g btw

Mattreed91

How can I update without holding the option button while clicking check for updates because every time I get the error 3002 message.

Zoul?SoShi. 515! :D

@Mattreed91 you can restart. dont do it if youre having and iphone… phone service doesnt work at all

Zoul?SoShi. 515! :D

restart your windows/mac

nazimjamil

That’s because it isn’t.

Try holding Shift when clicking the restore button. If you’re on a mac, holding ALT and clicking Restore will let you search for and install iOS5. If you’re installing it onto an iPhone it wont function as a phone anymore.

I’ve been trying to do the EXACT same thing… I keep getting error 3002 as well! I’ve tried everything! You say it won’t function as a phone anymore? Is that true?

Zack

Guys, in my home I have my own computer running Windows 7 and my brother’s running OS X, trying this on Windows 7 flat out didn’t work for me, but OS X seems to be showing some success…

Krack Jobo

I had this error and its because you have an older version of iOS. Befor updating to iOS 5 you will need to update to iOS 4.3.3. After you have that then get iOS 5. And it doesn’t seem to be able to call…

dsjr2006

I’ve heard that you will not be able to use your phone if you activate this way because it won’t connect to the cell network results in no reception…. can anyone confirm?

Yep, I finally got around the 3002 error (using iTunes 10.5 beta and option-clicking Restore), then went through the VoiceOver/Emergency Call steps to ‘activate’ the phone, only to find that it no longer works as a phone. You have to have a developer account to *fully* activate as iPhone running iOS5 beta. (Took me forever to downgrade and restore it too. Long story.) Don’t do this if you want to use your phone as a PHONE.

Carlos Rincon Eckardt

Why even bother? this is Pre-release software, with a plenty of bugs and issues, iCloud services won’t work and to top if off you’re not able to make or receive calls!

Bottom line if you don’t have a developer account you’re better off just sticking to 4.3

JK

Don’t Update iphone. There is No Service after upgrading to iOS5 :(

Andre

I confirm. Did that and No Service.

Luke

I FIGURED IT OUT!! Ok, for those of you who cant get it to restore because apple is rejecting it, open up tinyumbrella and click start TSS server. Open iTunes and opt click restore again and it will work!

This is garbage and nothing works, plus it is hell to downgrade, I bit the bullet and signed up for a dev account, have some spots that I can register UDID’s email me if interested, iosdevaccess@gmail.com, then you can just do the official beta route. $8 bucks an ID

mikey.p

tried with second .ipsw, still says wrong build. what am I doing wrong?!

i need some help i try to do the three finger swipe but it just dos’t work then i tryed the voice over thing and that do’s not work ether what shold i try and i cant restor my iphone can some one tell me how to get passed this stuff please?

jmbjmb98

well i just did it so ok i am trying to downgrade do you no how? please tell me

Shahbaz Ali

how did u downgrade helpppppppppppp plzzzzzzzzzzzz

Nathan Primeaux

is there a fix for this yet. my 3gs is having service problems tried downgrading and im getting the same result….

Austinkroeker93

Ok so i’m kinda worried. I updated my iPhone 4 to iOS 5 Beta 6 and i know it’s still in beta but i can’t get any service. It just says, “no service.” Does anyone know if when the Final release comes out, will i regain AT&T service Please help.

Iphone493

i don’t have service either

Dirtrider631

when i swipe my fingers down nothing happens and i have no service):

Kamaran Mohsin

no service error uhg!

chaviza

what’s up with this No service thing , I am stuck with the same error. I can’t even downgrade to older firmware ?